Mistle Thrush

The sexes are similar with warm brown upper parts, pale buff underparts with
dark speckles (which look like arrows pointing towards the head and are
often arranged in lines) and a tinge of golden brown on the breast. The belly is
almost white with fewer, smaller dark spots than the Mistle Thrush. They
have relatively large eyes, as do Robins and other woodland ground feeding
birds, and pale pink legs. The bill is brown in colour.

Unlike the Mistle Thrush, the Song Thrush usually flies low, below tree top
height, from bush to bush.

Juveniles have pale buff streaks on the back.

Song Thrush

Nest

Juvenile

Scientific Name

Turdus philomelos

Length

23 cm (9")

Wing Span

33-36 cm (13-14")

Weight

70-90 g (2½-3¼ oz)

Breeding Pairs

990000

Present

All Year

Status

Red

Voice

The Song Thrush's song may be repetitive - repeating the same phrase three
or four times, as if it liked it the first time and so does it a few more
times - but it is clear and flute-like, and is often chosen by people as
being their favourite bird song.

They usually sing from a prominent perch.

Robert Browning wrote:

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!

Feeding

The Song Thrush's diet includes worms, insects, berries and snails.

The latest research suggests that they eat snails only when the ground
has become baked or frozen and they cannot dig out worms, etc. They smash
the snail's shell against an anvil (usually a rock). Blackbirds often
steal the snail after the Song Thrush has cracked it open.

Song Thrushes often feed under or close to cover, unlike Mistle
Thrushes that often feed out in the open.

Nesting

A shady place in a bush or tree is the usual location for the nest,
which will be built by the female. The nest is cup shaped and constructed
from grass, twigs, and earth. The lining is very smooth and typically
comprises mud or dung mixed with saliva.

The smooth, glossy bright blue eggs are spotted with black, and approximately
27 mm by 21 mm. The female incubates the eggs by herself. After the young
hatch, they are fed by both parents.

Breeding Starts

Clutches

Eggs

Incubation (days)

Fledge (days)

March-June

2-4

3-9

11-15

12-16

Movements

Song Thrushes are both resident and migratory. Some birds, especially in northern populations, migrate southwards in the autumn, with southern populations going as far as France, Spain and Portugal. In the winter, the remaining British population is often joined by slightly darker immigrants from Scandinavia and
BENELUX.

Conservation

The Song Thrush population is less than half what it used to be and so
it is on the Red List.

Evidence suggests that this is not caused by increased
predation by hawks or Magpies but through
agricultural intensification and changes in woodland management. Agricultural
intensification results in a loss of hedgerows and as a result there is less food
and fewer nesting sites for birds to raise sufficient broods to maintain
the population. Recent woodland management practice has been to remove the
shrub layer from woodlands and improve drainage, this leads to less cover for
nest sites and harder ground from which the Song Thrush struggles to extract
invertebrates, such as earthworms.

The latest surveys suggest that the decline has at least levelled off and
may even be reversing.